Author's Notes: Thanks to those who reviewed. I liked the idea of putting together a bunch of stories based on the character's 21rst birthdays. This is Suze's and from now on they will have a little bit of a plot at least.

Grace: You weren't pushy at all actually. thank you by the way.

that-girl-who-likes-dolphins: The point of the piñata was to show that Suze's mother was going over board though I do agree that it would be fun to see Jesse trying to hit it.

bbfl: Thanks

trisisabel: I guess that this answers your question. I'm glad you liked it.

In this chapter Suze and Jesse have been married for two months. I know that Suze is a little young by the standards now. However, Jesse is from the nineteenth century and we can't expect him to give up all of his views and back then, a girl of twenty-three or so was considered a spinster. Read the first few chapters of "Gone With the Wind" If you don't want to take my word for it.

21 for Suze

I turn twenty-one next week and my life is just about perfect. Jesse and I have been married for two months. Mom was unhappy about how young we were but she came around when we asked her to help us plan. Jesse is still in med. school. However, I am almost done getting my teaching degree and Father D. says he'll probably hire me because I'll be able to "connect with the students". Whatever. Although we are both still in school we are financially stable because my grandmother died shortly after the wedding and left everything to me because I am the only living Simon. Jesse also managed to find some of his family heirlooms in a hole when we went to see what had happened to his family's ranch.

We're not exactly rich, but we don't qualify for food stamps either. We have a nice little cottage about a mile away from the beach. I say a little cottage but I should mention that it has four bedrooms. It cost next to nothing because it was in shambles until we released Andy near it. It would probably be worth four times as much as what we bought it for now.

Anyway. Jesse thinks that he's throwing me a surprise party. He has much to learn in the art of planning a surprise. Including not to let the custom made balloons that say "HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUZE" in big letters and giving the liquor people a phone number that I cannot answer. I don't let him know that I know this though. After all it is pretty sweet of him. Though he is really bad at cover up.

"Querida?" he said this morning. "I got you some catalogues from your favorite stores yesterday. Why don't we look at them together?" I gave him a funny look. Anyone could tell he was trying to find out what I wanted for my birthday. I decided to tease him a bit by looking at the expensive stuff first.

"Oh! Jesse, look at this necklace. It's beautiful, isn't it?" I gushed on about the diamond and emerald necklace. It cost about $900 so it freaked him out a little. Sorry? What was that? A bad wife? Me? You bet. I love teasing him and he does it to me sometimes too so it's justified.

Eventually I stopped gushing and showed him a nice dress that cost about $50. He was relieved that I hadn't pushed the necklace. Yes, I am aware that I am evil.

Five days before my birthday I woke up and ran to the toilet. Jesse had already gone to school or I probably would have been in bed all day. I have one semester left in which I am a student teacher and I am not getting sick and delaying my degree even a day. I had some toast with peanut butter on it (AN: I have actually had this before and it really is pretty good if it's the right kind of peanut butter) and went to my student teacher assignment.

I am unfortunately assigned to Sister Ernestine. I know. Ironic and unfair isn't it? Luckily this is my last day with her because we start winter holidays after today. Then I get to go see Mr. Walden. I just can't seem to work with anyone I haven't learned from before, can I?

The next day I woke up and decided that the toilet was my new best-friend. Lucky for me Jesse wasn't there on Saturdays because he's filling in at the Coffee Clutch. I hoped that I wouldn't be sick on tomorrow because Jesse would be home since he insists that I go to church with him. (Give a little, take a little. Getting up early on a Sunday is worth being married to Jesse.) If I got sick on a Sunday he would either not believe me or drive me to the hospital. He worries too much.

Of course luck has never been on my side. Jesse and I were have a round of early-morning-we-know-we-should-get-out-of-bed-but-we're-newlyweds-give-us-five-more-minutes-cuddling when I felt that all too familiar sensation of late and left my husband for the restroom. I heard him come up behind me and pull my hair out of my face. He looked at me reproachfully.

"Susannah," he said. Uh oh. I'm in trouble now. "How long have you been sick?" I tried to look as pitiful as I could so that he wouldn't press me on it, but he just kept glaring at me. I gave up and sighed.

"This is the third day," I said. I rushed into an explanation before he scolded me, "But it's only in the mornings not any other time." (AN: If you don't know why she's sick you are either in second grade or extremely stupid.)

"You still should have told me," he started, "or at least gone to see a doctor." I was starting to get upset. It really sounded like he was insulting me or trying to make me seem stupid.

"I thought that it was just a bug or something! I wasn't even running a fever and I hate going to hospitals!" Oops. I didn't mean to yell at him. Now he looks upset.

Jesse practically dragged me to the car. My yelling at him just seemed to convince him I needed to see a doctor even more. He dropped me off because he hasn't figured out that I don't need him to drive me everywhere and that there is in fact a cab company in this town. I was just about to climb into the cab I had ordered when I had a very scary thought.

What if it wasn't just a bug? What if it was something else? I told the cab driver to take me to a drugstore. I bought a home pregnancy test and got back in the cab. Jesse had beat me home and was furious that I hadn't stayed and gotten and appointment at least. He didn't make me back though since noticed that I was upset.

He did make me stay in bed for the day. Jesse started winter holidays on Friday so even though I didn't get sick on Monday he still made me stay in bed. By Tuesday morning he decided that I would be well on my birthday. I couldn't that the test on Monday or Tuesday morning because Jesse hovered over me until he was called in to work at the Museum at 3:00 on Tuesday.

It took me a whole hour to work up my courage and take the stupid test. It turned out positive of course. I put it in my pocket and tried to think of a way to tell Jesse. Both of us are still in college and he only has small jobs that pay just above minimum wage. Yes, we have enough money to support a baby, but I was kind of hoping to have Jesse to my self for a couple of years before we started a family. I finally decided to leave the test on his nightstand.

He came home worn out because there were several people who brought babies to the museum. Why do they do that? The child doesn't understand what's going on and probably won't remember it. It makes no sense. Jesse was so exhausted that he didn't even look at his nightstand.

The next day was my twenty-first birthday. I occurred to me that I would have to wait before I can drink still. Oh well. I wasn't really looking forward to getting drunk anyway. The others will wonder why I'm not drinking until I tell them though.

People started coming over and I tried to act surprised. But, alas, I am not an actress for a good reason. Everyone knew that I had been expecting this.

About ten minutes after everyone had arrived Jesse asked to talk with me in private. He pulled me into our room and smiled at me. He picked up the test and showed it to me. His smile had turned into a silly grin. I smiled back at him.

"You should have told me," he said.

For some reason this I feel insulted so I slap his cheek and leave the room. Behind me I hear him say, "I may not survive this one."